4. "WWF Wrestlemania 2000" (Nintendo 64/Game Boy Color) 1999
If anyone was worried that THQ not be able to live up to the steps Acclaim took, Wrestlemania 2000 did a lot to calm those fears. Though WCW didn't have as many video games as the WWF, THQ had done wonders for the company in the few that they had. "WCW/N.W.O Revenge" and "World Tour" were two very good wrestling simulations that WWF wanted to capitalize on. Wrestlemania 2000 used the same game engine as "Revenge" which included a whole new grappling system that made tactics more important, including knowing when to use stronger or weaker grapples and strikes. Stronger attacks took longer to carry out but were more impressive and inflicted more damage. Weaker attacks were quicker to execute but not as strong, but a good way to chip away damage to allow for the strong attacks when the opportunity arose. After building up momentum, performing a taunt then meant you had a short window in which to perform your finishing move. In my opinion, finishers were represented the best they ever had been at this point, being more impactful than Attitude and looking great all around. Wrestlemania had an even bigger roster than Attitude, being home to over 50 WWF stars from the time, ranging from the top of the card to the perennial jobbers. Everyone in the game could be customized as far as the game would allow, letting you use any of the create a wrestler parts on the existing stars as well. Ever wanted to dress Stone Cold up in a Kane outfit? Wrestlemania 2000 was the first game to let you properly do so. Each wrestler had four sets of attire, allowing for a choice of 4 alternates for each character. It held a huge selection of customizable parts and impressively deep move sets. This game also started the trend of sneaking in move sets and pieces of famous wrestlers who weren't in the game, so that users could create them. Moves from the WCW games were carried over, allowing for the creation of some big WCW stars at the time like Goldberg and DDP. This meant that fans could create realistic versions of matches that could have been considered dream feuds at the time. The usual game modes were featured. King of the Ring and Royal Rumble made an obvious return alongside the usual exhibitions, while Cage matches and First Blood matches showed up, despite not being in the WCW games before it. The new gameplay and the N64's 4 controller ports meant that the Royal Rumble was the most fun it was yet. "Road to Wrestlemania" mode was the games career portion, of course starting at the bottom and making your way to a WWF title shot at Wrestlemania. It was longer than previous career mode entries, but was different in that a loss didn't end proceedings, instead just being recorded as a loss and carrying on. It did turn out to be a long process, but for the most part a fun mode, trying to collect all the belts on the way and ultimately defending them all once held. Wrestler entrances were now a full walk to the ring, including short images of the entrance videos, being that FMV's weren't feasible at the time. Added to the authentic WWF arenas, this made the entrances more on a par with the ones featured in WWF Attitude, though admittedly not as good. Graphically, the game was also maybe a step backward from Attitude with the wrestlers being very blocky, though it was to be expected since it was a cartridge based game. The gameplay however more than made up for any graphical disadvantages, and multiplayer was particularly enjoyable. For the first THQ game, Wrestlemania was a welcome new step for WWF fans. They clearly recognized early on how important customization was to WWF gamers and implemented it well in the game. Though limited in some ways compared to its PSOne brethren, they did focus on their strengths, which was obviously the gameplay. Wrestlemania 2000 was the most fun WWF game to date, and would only be bettered by its N64 sequel, "No Mercy."